Monday, 28 January 2008

My friend, Ahmed painted these using the simplest software/tool, Microsoft Paint... I was really impressed by his artistic skills and ought to try it out myself......1 hour.......2 hours ..... OK....I give up. What I have drawn is just a piece of crap...darn

1st pic: Is this the famous Max Payne or some thug from Godfather? I wonder....2nd pic: Looks more like Gordon Freeman from half-life series....

Monday, 21 January 2008

Company of Heroes is a historical strategy game set during the World War 2. The main campaign focus mainly on American operations such as The Battle of Normandy where player must guide a small army to battle with the Axis forces.Factions in the game:There are only 2 factions in the game, the Axis (German) and Allied (America).Axis: strong tanks and defense system.Allied: versatile and fast moving.

Gameplay: Like any typical RTS game, player must build a base, then gather resources and annihilate your enemies. In Company of Heroes, player gather resources by capturing strategic points and ammunition points, much like the resource gathering system in the Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War series. The player can choose between the 2 modes in the skirmish game, Annihilation (Player must eliminate all of the enemies) and Victory Point Control (Player must capture the strategic points on the map to win the game) ...The A.I of the game can be describe as "cunning" and challenging. They often attack the places which are left unguarded and tend to surround your army and destory them.... 9.2/10

Graphics: The graphic of the game is simply awesome, with fully destructable environment, adding a much more realistic gameplay. The units, tanks, structures and effects (gun battle anfd explosions) are designed and created in full details. 9.4/10

Audio The sound effects are quite good but not that unique.... 7.5/10

Verdict: Company of Heroes is simply one of best RTS game alongside with Command and Conquer Series, Blizzard's Starcraft and Warcraft Series as well as Warhammer 40k series. ...9.5/10

Friday, 11 January 2008

The long awaited sequel of God of War. The developers brought back our much beloved "anti-hero", Kratos, the "kill-first-then-ask-question" Spartan Hero. The story start off after the ending of the first game. (For more info, play the games, it's worth your time or read them from wikipedia....)

Storyline: In the first game, the developers introduce Kratos and his background (his family, his past..etc) This time, the story focus much on the Great War of the Titans or Titanomachy. The way how the developers tell the myth of the Titans was interesting and enjoyable (Imagine reading thousands of words on Wikipedia....). 8.4/10

Gameplay: Just like the first game, player controls Kratos in a third person view, and is able to unleash devasting combos and magic spells to crush the enemies. The player is able to perform deadly grapple moves (scatter kills, mutilation..etc) by just pressing some simple buttons (sometimes only 1 button is needed to a nice killing-effect) The combos are easy and fun to watch. That goes the same to the puzzles (player must perform some tasks to open doors, pass the stage..etc) in the game, though some can be frustrating. A.I of the monsters have been upgraded as well. They no longer awaits you to brutally slaughter them and will work in groups to take you out. 9.6/10

Audio/Sountrack: The sound effect is simply superb, dragging the player into a "virtual yet realistic Ancient Greece". The wailings of the soldiers, the clashing of the swords and even sound effect from the magic spells are nice done and put together. As for the soundtrack, it is sung by a "choir", which made it different from other games. The background music provides a entertaining gameplay environment (soothing music when you are in the enemy-free zone, and challenging musics when it comes to solving puzzles) 8.8/10

Graphic: The graphic of the game surpasses any of the ps2 games. The developers made good use of rendering and shading, bringing the "virtual Ancient Greece" to life. The structures are awesome (they have some of the biggest structures (including living structures, the titans) in any of the games ( Final Fantasy 12 seems to have a big city and some big terrain, but a big titan? nah....) The game also features excessive violence and gore, which unexpectedly made it popular. 9.7/10

Verdict: The game almost scored a perfect in my point of view. I like almost every aspect of it. The ending of the game made me crave for more God of War series. (Darn, it's like a drug now...cant't stop playing God of War ..... can't stop...) Hopefully they will come up with something more intense in the upcoming sequel, God of War 3...9.8/10